1. Field of The Invention
This application relates to an automatic process and apparatus for producing two- (or more) component edible dough products such as cookies or other snack foods.
2. Prior Art
Component dough products having two or more components are popular with consumers but their production is often time-consuming and, therefore, relatively expensive. Swirl cookies, for instance, which have dough as a principal component and chocolate icing or some other suitable filling combined with the dough to form a swirl pattern with the dough, are typically made by rolling the dough out on a flat surface and spreading the chocolate icing or other flavored component on the flat dough surface. The dough is then rolled into an elongated tube shape which results in the layers of dough and icing being intertwined. The dough and icing, rolled together into a tube shape, are then cut by a knife or wire vertically along the longitudinal axis of the tube to produce uniform cookie-shaped segments which are then cooked to provide an end product having the desired two-component swirl design.